Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The 'flowers' pictured are actually sculpted representations of Crinoids aka Sea Lilies, beautiful marine invertebrates (spineless animals) related to starfish and sea urchins. Although some modern species exist today most flourished in the Paleozoic period and are well-represented in the fossil record.

A modern crinoid

What looked familiar is that the crinoid in the photograph is part of a diorama I know well, having seen it at the RedPath museum, one of the oldest museums in Canada. The breathtaking diorama depicts what life would have looked like at the bottom of the St-Lawrence river millions of years ago.

The Montreal RedPath Museum located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada on the McGill University campus is housed in a gorgeous old building, the oldest one in North America built as a museum. The RedPath is a cabinet of curiosities of sorts where you can see displays concerning Natural History and Ethnology including fossils, dinosaur bones, shells, minerals, taxidermied animals and human artifacts from around the world including 3 Egyptian mummies!

huge Albertosaurus skeleton with a view of the building's beautiful architecture